


Homecoming, Part I

by justalittlegreen



Series: Sunshine and Filth [27]
Category: MASH (1970), MASH (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-27
Updated: 2018-11-27
Packaged: 2019-08-29 11:16:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16742944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justalittlegreen/pseuds/justalittlegreen





	Homecoming, Part I

Peg's been lightheaded and dizzy all day and can't finish anything she starts. She'd wanted to meet BJ at the airport, but he'd asked her to stay home.  _I think I just might burst into tears when I see you two_ , he'd written.  _I'd rather not have an audience. Can you wait another couple hours for me, sweetheart?"_  
  
So Peg paces the house, finding little things that don't really need fixing and obsessing over them - the couch cushions, Erin's toy box, the silverware. She tries not to guess at what will happen when he walks in, tries to focus on the full-body flutters she gets when she thinks about kissing him, takes two showers, brushes her teeth four times before lunch (which is two nibbled crackers that Erin left behind) and tries to paint her bitten-down nails into something nicer before she gives up. 

Her hands won't stop shaking.

It's getting time for Erin's nap - if he shows up now, they'll both suffer later for throwing her off schedule - but Erin's picked up on her mood and fusses whenever Peg tries to put her down. Finally, Peg gives up and brings Erin to the couch in the living room, letting her curl up in her lap as she sings round after round of  _oh my darlin' clementine._ She's singing to herself as much as she is to the baby (she will always be the baby, even when she's thirty, Peg swears it) and Erin finally starts to doze off on Peg's chest. The easy flutter of her breathing and the weight of her - when did she get this big? - calms Peg some, too.

She's almost closing her eyes when she hears the knob turn. With a sleeping toddler pinning her to the couch, Peg can't move or call as a brown-coated arm swings into her view. And then the arm is gone, but he's there, her BJ, and the look on his face when he sees the two of them makes  _her_ burst into tears.   
  
BJ moves swiftly to the couch and gently scoops Erin off her chest. For a second, they both hold their breath as she stirs and snuffles, but within a few seconds, she's curled up with her head on BJ's shoulder and he looks like he never wants to put her down, taking long deep breaths, his nose buried in her hair. And just as she once imagined it, he wraps his other arm around Peg, and the three of them close in like the perfect circle she's been waiting for. It doesn't matter that he's so much thinner and paler than when he left, that his hair is going gray at the temples, or that he's sporting a mustache that pre-Korea BJ would've found absurd. It matters that when their arms are around each other, the light goes on in his eyes.

Neither of them speaks.

For two years, all they had were words. All they had were letters and those too-brief shouted phone calls. It makes sense - more than just don't-wake-the-baby-sense - that there's so little need for them now.

BJ starts heading down the hall toward Erin's room, and Peg is grateful that in her fit of morning cleaning, she finally moved the crib back in there. He stops as he enters it, taking in the change from nursery to little-girl room, the walls once pale pink now a light green, with two giraffes Peg painstakingly stenciled onto the wall when Erin was in her giraffe phase. The toys have gone from soft animals and teething rings to blocks and baby dolls. All at once, she can see how much he realizes he's missed, and this time, it's her turn to take the baby while he breaks into tears.  
  
Erin, luckily, doesn't wake when they put her down and tiptoe backwards out of the room, the way they did when she was a newborn. Peg checks her watch - they likely have another half hour, forty-five if they're lucky, before she's up. As soon as the door is shut, she throws her arms around BJ and he lifts her into the air and gives her a tiny whirl right there in the hallway, and suddenly they are kissing, hard and deep, like they can't breathe without each other. She wraps her legs around his waist and he leans her against the wall. She can feel him, hard and needy and whatever doubts she had about this moment and its implications evaporate as she lets her legs fall and grabs him by the tie to lead him upstairs.

The race is on to see who can undress whom first, and he has the advantage of being taller, but she has fewer buttons to contend with. Neither of them can stop grinning; she can feel a few tears on her face, and his eyes are bright, too, but there's a hunger, a two-year famine that must be addressed before anything else can happen.  
  
BJ turns her around so he can unzip her, and as he does, pushes Peg into their bed. She lands on her forearms, raises herself up on her toes, knowing how much he loves the way her legs look when she does that. She can't resist a little wiggle. He runs his hands over her skin like he's trying to memorize something in Braille, like her body is a language he once spoke fluently and has to learn again. She shudders and gasps, small moans escaping her pressed lips, which brings out the rough side of his growl, low, thick and aroused. Peg feels it go right through her.  
  
He climbs into bed and pulls her on top of him, panting as she straddles him in her slip and bra over his shorts. She's so wet already, so deliciously achy and full of need, and part of her wants to slow down, savor him, relearn the language of his body. But a different, less patient part of her wants to skip right to all the swear words she remembers, so she reaches between them and gives him an experimental squeeze.  
  
For a split second, he looks almost confused, like she's done something unexpected, but as quickly as it comes, it's gone and he's bucking up into her hand, the first words flying out of his mouth - "Peg, oh Peg, please, _please_ , Peggy" are so utterly wrecked that it brings her to tears again. She's sniffling and laughing and crying and gasping as she works him over, slipping him out of his shorts and under her slip and - it's been  _so long_.  
  
BJ pauses the second he sees her face twist - she hadn't expected it to hurt, coming back like this, but she's not been stretched or full for a long time, fingers be damned. He grabs her thighs like a question, eyes searching hers for a sign that she's okay, or not. Peg closes her eyes and lowers herself more slowly, moving his hand between them so he can stroke her. Right - this is what made it easier, in the beginning, he remembers.

Slowly, slowly, they move, Peg breaking a sweat as she feels herself stretching to accommodate him, and BJ's gripping the sheets in a way that she recognizes, the way he does when he's desperately trying to hold back. Once she's completely full, she leans over for more kisses. He rolls her over and she wraps her legs around his hips again as he kisses his way down her neck, biting and sucking in ways that should make her want to stop him, but the thought of waking up with her neck ringed in bite marks utterly liquefies her and she throws her head back, calling his name.  
  
From there, it's another race to see who can get to whom first. She brings her teeth to his neck to return the favor, savoring the salt of him as he growls her name, thrusting every time she runs her tongue over the tender skin. She meets him thrust for thrust, feeling herself relax, open, wanting to take him deeper and deeper, feeling herself near the edge as he sits up on his knees for a better angle. She watches him stick his thumb in his mouth and pull it out, dripping, before bringing it to rub small circles in exactly the right spot.  
  
_He's never done that before_. The thought flashes through her mind, but before she can consider the implications, because he's bringing her over the edge and she's coming apart under him, gasping and twisting, eyes screwed shut so tightly there's nothing but stars and static, and he follows, lying back down over and kissing her hard and deep, like he wants to swallow her whole. He catches her lower lip in his teeth and she moans. He's never done that before, either, but again, she's too distracted to make sense of it because he is roaring at her ear into the pillow, "Peggy - oh,  _Peg,_ oh Gd, I need you, I love you, I love you -"  
  
And Peggy whispers, "I know. I know. I know."  
  
Whatever happens in the next minutes - in the next weeks, the next years - in this moment, that is the only thing that matters.  
  



End file.
